Alduin's Bane
by TLoZTFH
Summary: A former Altmerian noble has been convicted of murder. Exiled from the Empire, she travels to Skyrim, not knowing that the land of the Nords is where she will find her destiny, her true love, and her will to survive.


**Alduin's Bane**

**Scroll I**

Arinei knew nothing but pain. Every breath was torture.

Every thought was like an explosion going off in her head.

Every heartbeat pounded against what was left of her ribcage.

A large trail of blood left her mouth.

She had failed.

"_I… Is this… the end…?"_

XxxX

_One week previous…_

_Arinei Aspen was awakened to the sound of horses' hooves clopping against a stone road. She groggily shook her head to clear her sight._

_She was 24, an Altmer from the respected Aspen family of Summerset Isle. She had white skin, like a human – which was rare for an elf -,green eyes, and nut-brown hair. She was the daughter of one of the most respected nobles in Altmerian society, but that was long in the past now._

_She had been exiled for a crime she didn't commit, which was murdering an important noble of Cyrodil… or something like that. No one, not even her own father, believed her when she said that it was her twin sister, Medea, who had done it. Conveniently for Medea, who was nowhere to be found, her sister was convicted._

_Arinei barely remembered the trial. It was a blur of arguing and shouting. Some wanted her dead, others believed she was important as the successor of the Aspen household. In the end, they compromised on exile, meaning Arinei wasn't allowed to go anywhere the Empire ruled, and never would be able to._

_Well, except for the ocean, that left only the country of Skyrim, which was in the middle of a massive civil war consisting of the rebels versus the Empire._

_She had left with the clothes on her back and very little money. She had traveled as far north as she could go, and she was surprised she had made it as far as she did._

_Her luck couldn't last forever._

_The instant she emerged from the mountain pass between Skyrim and Cyrodil, she found herself near a gate, which was open. It was night, raining, and she was soaked to the bone. She kept dragging herself forward, resting by the entrance to a cave, when all of a sudden, a war horn was blown, and two massive troupes of soldiers emerged from seemingly nowhere, trying to obliterate each other._

_Arinei had slipped and slid through the muddy battlefield, her once-beautiful clothes that were already quite worn being caked in mud as well. She had neared what she thought was the end of the area, and then her vision had gone black._

_Getting back to where she was, though._

"_Hey, you. You're finally awake." Came a man's voice with a rough Nordic accent. Arinei turned her head._

_He was in binds, much like herself. He had shaggy blonde hair and light blue eyes. She didn't respond, always having been rather quiet._

"_You… You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." He continued. Arinei looked to the right, where a man with short brown hair and a man with a gag over his mouth both sat._

_The brown-haired man looked more than a little angry. "Damn you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine before you came along. The Empire was nice and lazy. I could've stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell if it wasn't for you." He looked at Arinei. "You and me, we shouldn't be here! It's these Stormcloaks the Empire wants."_

"_We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief." The first man responded._

"_Shut up back there!" Came an annoyed voice from one of the soldiers all around them._

"_What's his problem, huh?" The brown-haired man asked the one with the gag. The first glared at him._

"_Watch your tongue! You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King!"_

_The brown-haired man's eyes widened. "Ulfric Stormcloak? You're the leader of the rebellion! But if they've captured you… oh gods, where are they taking us?!"_

"_I don't know where we're going." The first man told him. "But Sovngarde awaits."_

_There was silence for a little bit, before the first man asked, "Hey, what village are you from, horse thief?"_

"_Why do you care?"_

"_A Nord's last thoughts should be of home."_

_The thief seemed to calm slightly, but there was a quiver in his voice. "Rorikstead. I-I'm from Rorikstead."_

_They rounded a bend, bringing a town with high stone walls and towers into view._

"_Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here." The first man said. "I wonder if Vilod is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in… Funny, when I was a boy, imperial walls and towers used to make me feel so safe."_

"_General Tullius sir, the prisoners have arrived." An imperial captain on a horse told a man in gleaming armor with red and brown linings._

"_Look at him. General Tullius, the military governor." The first man said, his voice thick with contempt._

"_Kynareth, Arkay, Mara, Dibella, Akatosh… Divines, please help me!" The thief prayed._

"_Papa, who are they?" Asked a child's voice, behind Arinei._

"_You need to go inside, little cub."_

"_Why? I wanna watch the soldiers."_

"_Inside. Now."_

_The carts rolled to a stop in front of a cleared area with a headsman's block in the middle._

"_Why are we stopping?" The thief asked frantically._

"_Why do you think? End of the line." The first man said. He looked at Arinei, giving a small smile. "Come on. Wouldn't want to keep the gods waiting for us, would we?"_

_They stood and exited one by one._

"_No! You can't do this! I'm not a rebel!" The thief said._

"_Face your death with some courage, thief." The first man said._

"_Step towards the block when we call your name!" The imperial captain from before shouted. A man, no doubt her lieutenant, stood beside her with a list._

"_Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm." He said, and the gagged man walked to join a group of soldiers in binds like them, no doubt Stormcloaks._

"_Lokir of Rorikstead." The lieutenant continued._

"_I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!" The thief shouted, starting to sprint for the gate they had come through._

"_ARCHERS!" The imperial captain shouted, and two arrows almost instantly buried themselves in Lokir's back._

"_Anyone else feel like running?" The captain asked. No response._

"_Ralof of Riverwood." The lieutenant said, and the blond-haired man stepped towards the block as well._

_Arinei was now the only one left. The lieutenant looked at her, then at the list. "Who are you?"_

"_Arinei Aspen." Arinei replied. The lieutenant turned to the captain._

"_Captain, what should we do? She's not on the list."_

"_She goes to the block. She's the elf who murdered Lord Hunte, then lied about her sister doing it." The captain replied._

"_That's her?" The lieutenant looked at Arinei. "I'm sorry. I believe your story. I'll make sure your remains are returned to Summerset Isle."_

_Arinei stepped towards the group of other prisoners, her eyes sparkling with gratefulness. Perhaps she would be able to go home after all… even if she was dead._

_She was just in time to hear General Tullius' speech in front of Ulfric._

"_Ulfric Stormcloak. Some here in Helgen call you a hero. But a hero doesn't use a power like the Voice to murder his king and usurp his throne."_

_Ulfric grunted behind the gag._

"_You started this war, plunged Skyrim into chaos, and now the Empire is going to put you down, and restore the peace."_

_The first prisoner, a Stormcloak, was sent to the block._

"_Give them their last rites." The captain told a priestess of Arkay, who was standing nearby. The priestess nodded._

"_As we commend your souls to Itherius, blessings of the Eight Divines upon you and may you know that…" She was interrupted by the prisoner at the block._

"_For the love of Talos, shut up and let's get this over with! I haven't got all morning!" He said with annoyance in his tone._

"_Very well then." The priestess, miffed, stepped back._

_The captain pushed the prisoner down to his knees, then put her foot on his back, shoving him onto the block._

_As the headsman raised his axe, the prisoner fearlessly said, "My ancestors are smiling at me, imperials! Can you say the same?"_

_The axe came down, and his head fell into the waiting basket, the captain kicking the body aside._

"_You imperial bastards!" Came a cry from one of the Stormcloaks. Shouts of dissent to this came from the townspeople._

"_Yeah!"_

"_Death to the Stormcloaks!"_

"_Next prisoner!" The captain shouted. After she did, a fearsome roar suddenly echoed through the mountains._

"_What in the Divines' names was that?" Someone asked for all of them._

"_I said next prisoner!" The captain shouted. The lieutenant looked at Arinei._

"_To the block, prisoner. Nice and easy."_

_Arinei slowly walked forward to the block, feeling the captain push her to her knees, then kick her in the back to get her head on the block. Arinei's mind reeled at the stench of blood, and she felt like she was going to be sick._

_Arinei closed her eyes as the headsman raised his axe…_

_Another, ear-shattering roar that instantly burst one of Arinei's eardrums (her ears were sensitive, even by elven standards, and their ears were very much so) sounded close to her, and the ground shook as something impacted with it._

"_Get up! The Divines won't give us another chance!" Ralof's voice shouted next to her. She was hauled to her feet._

_Fire seemingly rained from the sky, as did chunks of stone. A large, lizard-like creature that was pure black flew overhead. The two ran for a nearby tower, Ralof slamming the door shut behind them._

_Ulfric, along with some hurt prisoners, was inside._

"_Jarl Ulfric, could the legends be true?" Ralof asked._

"_Legends don't burn down villages, Ralof." The Jarl responded in a deep voice. "Take the Altmer wench and try to find a way out of here."_

_They ran up a set of spiraling stone stairs, and stopped when they saw a soldier trying to shift some rubble blocking their path._

"_Just have to move these…" He began, but was cut off as the side of the tower was blown inwards, crushing him underneath the debris._

"_You see the inn on the other side?!" Ralof shouted. "Jump! We'll follow as soon as we can!"_

_Arinei braced herself, then ran forward and jumped through the hole in the side of the tower, landing hard on the second floor of the inn, where the roof had been burned away. Grimacing in pain, she ran forward and dropped a short fifteen feet down to the first floor, emerging from the building a few seconds later._

_The lieutenant was out there, along with an old man and a young boy._

"_Take care of the child!" The lieutenant shouted. "Still alive, prisoner? Follow me if you want to stay that way!"_

_Arinei followed him as told, sprinting across a short space of road, slowing at a space in between a building and the wall on the other side._

"_Stay close to the wall!" The lieutenant shouted, crouching as a blast of debris flew by right in front of him. He then continued, Arinei following. They reached an open part of the road where a few soldiers and an old man were. The lizard beast, still circling overhead, breathed a jet of flame than killed the old man instantly._

"_Everyone get to the keep!" The lieutenant shouted, sprinting towards a large stone building, Arinei close behind._

_Ralof appeared from almost nowhere._

"_Ralof, you damn traitor! Out of my way!" The lieutenant roared, his sword drawn._

"_You're not stopping us this time, Hadvar!"_

"_With me, prisoner! Inside the keep!" Hadvar shouted._

"_Come on, elf!" Ralof bellowed._

_Arinei was faced with a decision; follow the side that her family fought on, the one that had exiled her, or follow the side that they fought against._

_Well, that was a no-brainer._

_Arinei followed Ralof into the keep, and they emerged into a small room with a locked door on one side, and a gate on the other._

"_We made it." Ralof sighed. He walked over to the opposite side of the room, where a dead Stormcloak lay. He knelt, passing a hand over the dead man's eyes, closing them._

"_We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother." He said quietly, then stood and faced Arinei._

"_Come here. Let me see if I can get those bindings off." He told her. She turned so her back was to him, offering her bound wrists. He untied them quickly, and she turned to face him._

"_Thank you." She told him softly._

"_You're welcome. Why don't you go ahead and change into Gunjar's gear? He won't be needing it anymore."_

_Arinei assumed Gunjar was the dead man, so she walked over to him and hesitantly took his armor. He also carried a war axe, which felt heavy and uncomfortable in Arinei's inexperienced hands._

_Ralof looked around._

"_Bah. We're trapped in here. No way to open that from our side."_

"_Open the gate!" Came the voice of the imperial captain. Arinei and Ralof crouched by the wall next to the gate as it raised._

_The imperial captain stepped through, along with an imperial soldier. Ralof immediately attacked them, and Arinei hesitantly swung the axe at the imperial captain, whose back was turned as she fought Ralof. She fell, and there was a splash of blood from her back where Arinei's axe entered her body. The other soldier soon met his end at Ralof's hands, and he spoke without turning to her._

"_Come on. Maybe one of these imperials has the key."_

_No reply. He turned, to see Arinei standing over the captain's body, her own body shaking. Her eyes were wide, and the axe fell from her hand. A strangled noise that reminded Ralof of a dying animal left her throat as she sank to the floor and curled up in a ball, shaking._

_Ralof realized that he had no idea what to do. He'd never dealt with someone going into first kill shock. He'd heard of men who never talked to anyone again because of it, and this elf hardly talked anyway. Her mind was in complete shock._

_Ralof tried his best._

"_You can't survive Skyrim without the heart of a true Nord." Ralof said quietly. "I realize you must be very shaken by this, but in Skyrim, there a lot of people who would kill you without a second thought, and sleep soundly at night without regretting it. It might be harsh, but you have to get over it, elf."_

_Arinei continued to shake for about a minute longer, then slowly stood. Her face bore a grim but determined expression, as she reached down to take the armor from the captain's body, taking her sword and shield as well._

"_Key." She told Ralof, tossing him a shiny silver key, which he used to unlock the door._

"_Better?" He asked._

"_Let's just get the hell out of here." Arinei stated, her sights set forward. "And kill a few imperials while we're at it, eh, old man?"_

_He gave a large grin. "That's the spirit you need in Skyrim, elf!" As she walked ahead of him, he muttered to himself, "I'm not that old…"_

_XxxX_

_After a long journey which involved lots of fighting, collapsing ceilings, and giant spiders, the pair emerged into bright daylight that burned their eyes._

"_My sister, Gerdur, lives in Riverwood, not too far from here. She'll be able to help us, I'm sure. We can travel together, or you can go on ahead."_

"_Let's go together." She replied, sheathing her sword. "You can tell me all about Skyrim on the way."_

"_And you can tell me about yourself, elf. Didn't even catch your name at the block."_

"_Agreed." Arinei agreed shortly, staying true to her habit of using as few words as possible. "How far?"_

"_It's not far." Ralof assured her as they started walking. Her stomach growled like thunder._

"_I hope not." She said, as he laughed._

_XxxX_

"_A dragon? You don't mean a real, live…" Gerdur trailed off. Ralof looked at her._

"_I can hardly believe it myself, and I was there. But as odd as it may seem, that dragon saved our lives."_

"_Who's your friend?" Gerdur asked Ralof, nodding her head at Arinei, who was staring up at the nearby mountain, which had a ruin on it. Her tone had a bit of mistrust in it._

"_She's… not like any high elf I've ever met… or even heard of. Don't worry. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have made it out alive."_

"_Hey." Arinei called, still staring up at the ruin. Ralof looked at her._

"_What?"_

"_How much gold do you think that ruin has in it?" She asked._

_Gerdur smiled and gave a small laugh. "Well, it seems you've brought in a real adventurer, brother. If you say I can trust her, I will."_

"_I don't know. You should check it out later, if you're so curious." Ralof told the Altmer._

"_But what if it has those… what do you call them? Draggers?" She walked over to them, uncertainty in her voice._

"_Draugr. A few old corpses aren't going to be able to defeat someone like you, girl." Ralof told her._

_Arinei pecked him on the cheek. "That's very sweet of you, old man."_

_As Ralof blushed and struggled to find his voice behind her, Arinei spoke to Gerdur. "I know you probably don't like a high elf in your town, but…" Her stomach growled for the millionth time since she'd woken up in the cart. "…Could you at least spare some food, please?"_

_Gerdur laughed. "Worry not. A friend of Ralof's is a friend of mine. You can stay at the house tonight, and feel free to eat all you want."_

_Those were words she'd regret._

_XxxX_

"_A real adventurer you've got there, Ralof." Gerdur sighed, as Arinei competed with Hod, her husband, in a drinking contest. Beforehand, she had stuffed herself so full, she nearly cleaned out Gerdur's storeroom. Ralof laughed and clapped his sister on the back._

"_She's got the heart of a Nord, Gerdur. And she hasn't eaten a proper meal in months."_

"_The heart of a Companion, more like." Gerdur said in annoyance. "Did you know those drunks up in Jorrvaskr cleaned out Honningbrew's stores in a single night?"_

"_Did they now? That's rather tame of them." Ralof commented, watching as the contest concluded with Hod and Arinei both passing out. "Over in Windhelm, we usually go through fifteen or sixteen kegs an hour."_

"_You're feeding an army. The Companions aren't nearly as big as the Stormcloaks, brother."_

_XxxX_

"_Halt there, elf wench. What business do you have in Whiterun?" The guard at the gate of Whiterun asked Arinei. She gave him a tired look._

"_Just let me in, please. I have news for the Jarl regarding an attack on Helgen."_

"_Very well then. You should go up to Dragonsreach right away, ma'am." Arinei noted that the last part, the, "ma'am," was very forced. She entered the city, looking about._

_As it was early morning, not many were about. The district she was in seemed to be mostly made up of a large area with many market stalls and shops. __**(A/N: I wanted to give the cities of Skyrim more of a sense of actual city-like space, so I'm going to be expanding upon the sizes.) **__To her left, there was a set of stairs leading to a large residential area. Looming over the town was a large castle that she assumed was Dragonsreach._

_She stopped a patrolling guard._

"_Beds and a drink." She told him tiredly. "Where can I find them?"_

"_The Bannered Mare up the road has both of those, but I'm not sure if they'll…" The guard was cut off as she walked away from him. "…serve elves." He muttered._

_XxxX_

_Arinei entered the inn with a slam of the door behind her. Activity instantly stopped. The woman behind the bar glared at her._

"_What do you want, elf? We don't serve your kind."_

"_Really?" Arinei replied softly, walking up to the bar and leaning over. "Well, that's about to change."_

"_Get out, before I call the guards." The woman told her, taking a dagger out. "Don't make me hurt you."_

_Arinei laughed. "Hurt me?" She drew her sword, which she had kept at her side ever since Helgen. "I did not come here looking for a fight."_

_She took out a coin purse with about three hundred gold in it._

_The woman looked at the coin purse, then at her._

"_Your room's upstairs, first one on your right." She said, through gritted teeth. An innkeeper would be mad to turn down an offer like that._

"_Thanks." Arinei said, sheathing her sword. She walked away from the counter, calling over her shoulder, "Oh, and by the way, you Nords might want to expand your narrow, racist minds to think about the other races in the world. I can assure you, not everyone who's an elf is evil. Just… most of the rich ones."_

"_You know this how? You're a long way from Summerset Isle, elf bitch." A tough-looking man in steel armor asked from a table._

"_Because I used to be rich. My name's Arinei Aspen. I assume you've heard of me, even up here?"_

_If the inn had gone silent before, now you could hear a pin drop from across the room. In an instant, Arinei was surrounded by people laughing and clapping her on the back. She realized that even though Whiterun was leaning towards siding with the imperials, there must have been quite a few Stormcloak supporters in the town. The fact that she'd supposedly killed an important Cyrodilian noble probably tipped the odds, if only a little, a bit more to the Stormcloaks' favor, with the one of the imperials' major benefactors disappearing._

"_All right, stop!" She shouted. The people did so in confusion. "You might think I murdered Lord Whatshisface, but I didn't! It was my sister! She just happened to disappear the day after! All right?!"_

_The people seemed stunned. "She's just a scapegoat." Said the woman behind the bar. "Even if you are an elf, I pity you. No one should suffer for the sins of another."_

_Arinei whirled to face her. "You're right! And that's why I'm in Skyrim! I'm going to make my family pay!"_

"_How are you going to make them pay while they're thousands of miles south?" Asked a woman sitting at a table. "I heard you elves were daft, but honestly, that's just stupid."_

"_Simple." Arinei replied coldly. "I'm going to help the Stormcloaks destroy the empire. If I destroy the Aldmeri Dominion's source of power, what do they have left?" A cold light entered her eyes. "And then, once the empire's gone, I'm going to march to Summerset Isle by myself and slaughter every major family in the nation, women and children included. Only the poor and humble will be left to rule, and the Aldmeri Dominion will cease to exist. And the last people I'm going to kill will be my family." She held up one hand, lowering her fingers one by one as she spoke._

"_First goes my older brother, who didn't lift a finger to help me. Next comes my mother, who scorned me for what I supposedly did. Then it's my other brother, who fell right into step beside everyone and gave a false witness to the crime. After that, it will be my father, who condemned me and left me to the council to do as they pleased with me. And finally, my bitch of a twin sister, who committed the crime I was so falsely accused for. I will kill her slowly and painfully, giving her no respite until she screams for me to kill her. The only one left will be my two younger sisters, who I'm going to take with me to start a new life. With all you Nords as my witness, I take an oath upon these words."_

_There was complete silence in the inn as Arinei climbed the stairs and went to her room, slamming the door behind her._

"_That's one angry Altmer bitch." Said a random person._

_XxxX_

_When Arinei woke up, it was nearly noon. She yawned and stretched, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. For a second, she thought she was at home again, but then everything flooded back to her at once. She sat up, resting her chin on her knees. The armor she had taken from the imperial captain was laid out on the dresser, and spare traveling clothes she had received from Gerdur were in a magical pouch that almost all Nord adventurers and warriors carried (blessed by Zenithar, God of Commerce, or so she had been told) that could hold almost anything. There was, however, a weight limit, but it expanded every so often. It was like her own little storage void, and she could switch out her weapon, clothing, and so on at almost any time by merely thinking it, which was quite handy._

_She fitted her armor and held the helmet in her hands for a moment, staring at it before placing it on her head. She would probably never forget the imperial captain's death by her hands as long as she lived._

_Fastening her sword at her side, she exited the room and descended the stairs. The inn was quite busy already, and Arinei left without a word to anyone, heading straight for the castle. When she started ascending the stairs leading up to Dragonsreach, she wondered if she'd even be able to gain an audience with the Jarl._

_When she reached the main entrance, the guards standing on either side stepped in front of it, stopping her._

"_Halt there, traveler. What business could an elf have in Dragonsreach?" The one on the left questioned._

"_I have news for the Jarl about an attack on Helgen." Arinei said persuasively. "It's important."_

_The guards looked at each other, but made no move to let her through._

"_If we let in every traveler in who said they had important information for the Jarl, we'd be fools." The guard on the right said._

"_Fair enough." Arinei agreed. "But it truly is important…"_

"_Begone, elf. I tire of your presence." The one on the left commanded, interrupting her. Arinei's eyes narrowed._

"_Let me through. A dragon has attacked Helgen."_

"_A dragon?! That'll be the day!" The guard on the right laughed, holding his side. The guard on the left laughed with him._

"_There's no way we'd let…" The guard on the right started, but then stopped. One of the doors to Dragonsreach was ajar, and Arinei was nowhere in sight. "Uh-oh."_

_XxxX_

_Arinei hummed to herself as she walked up the steps leading to the main hall of Dragonsreach. Two large tables laden with food faced a fire pit in the middle of the room. At the other end of the hall, on a throne sat a finely dressed older man arguing with a man standing next to him. Arinei had no doubt these men were the Jarl and his steward. She began to approach the two men, but three quarters of the way there, a dark elf with her sword out stopped her._

"_Halt. What business do you have with the Jarl? He has no time for your mundane concerns."_

_Arinei's hand absentmindedly moved to rest on the hilt of her own sword. "I have news from Helgen. About a dragon attack."_

_The dark elf's eyes narrowed. "Why should I believe you? There are rumors of dragons, but no more than rumors."_

"_The guards let me through, didn't they? Please, Riverwood's in grave danger if a dragon decides to attack there next."_

"_Ugh… very well, you may speak to the Jarl. However, keep your weapon sheathed, Altmer." The dark elf sheathed her sword grudgingly. Arinei stepped forward._

_The Jarl and his steward took no notice of her until the dark elf, who Arinei presumed was his housecarl, cleared her throat._

"_Hm?" The Jarl turned, and noticed Arinei for the first time. "Who stands before me, Irileth?"_

_The dark elf sighed. "A messenger, My Lord. She says she has news from Helgen."_

"_Helgen? What's happened? Speak, elf." The Jarl commanded._

_Arinei related the story of the dragon attack. "…So, please, Riverwood needs men to defend it, sir."_

_The Jarl considered her words for a few moments, then spoke. "Proventus, send a detachment of men to Riverwood right away."_

"_Yes, My Lord." The Jarl's steward bowed and exited up a small flight of stairs to the left._

"_Come, elf." The Jarl stood. "My court wizard, Farengar, will want to see you. He's been researching about these dragons and… rumors of dragons."_

_XxxX_

_Arinei ran it over for the millionth time in her head;_

_She was about to dive into the ancient Nordic ruin she had seen on top of the mountain from Riverwood, in search of a stone tablet that might not even be there. She would probably have to fight off, at best, a couple bandits (like the ones she had just taken out outside the ruin) and the occasional frostbite spider. Not too bad._

_At worst, the ruin would be loaded with traps, a couple bandits, frostbite spiders, and the zombie-like things the Nords called Draugr. She'd been told most ruins were._

_She stood there, staring at the entrance to the ruin, considering this. Snow whirled around her, making her colder by the second. Her metal armor didn't help, either…_

_She had a choice; "Should I freeze to death, or get killed while fighting off hordes of undead?"_

"_Bottoms up." She muttered to herself, and opened the door._

_XxxX_

_It was warm inside, at least._

_The entrance to the ruin was filled with debris from collapsed pillars and sections of ceiling. Cobwebs were everywhere. Not too far from where Arinei stood, two skeevers and a bandit lay dead. She hid behind a pillar, observing that at the far end, two bandits were huddled around a fire._

_Taking her bow from her awesome storage space, she fitted an arrow to it and moved, as quietly as possible, into a position that would allow her to take out one bandit quickly, then the other soon after._

_In a flash, it was done; two dead corpses lay on the floor, one with an arrow through the neck, the other with one in the chest and one in the shoulder._

_As Arinei searched the bodies for gold, which they had quite a bit of for bandits, she wondered what else she'd encounter in the ruin._

_She got the feeling that she didn't want to know._

XxXx

_Two elven sisters were in the archery range of the Aspen family estate. One was sitting on a bench, watching in amusement at the other's failed attempts at archery. The sunset set the sky ablaze with hues of pink, red, and orange above them._

"_Wow, you're horrible." Medea told her sister. Arinei grimaced as she let another arrow fly. It, like all the others before it, fell short of the target._

"_Shut the hell up."_

_Medea laughed, clapping her sister on the back. "Just give it up, Ari. Leave the fighting to me, and I'll leave the politics to you."_

"_Hmph." Arinei looked to the side in embarrassment and fake contempt. "As if. Give me two weeks, and I'll beat you."_

"_If by two weeks, you mean a thousand years and then some, sure." Medea said cheekily. Arinei hung her bow on a post and walked away, cheeks burning._

_She had no idea that in the previously mentioned two weeks, she'd be accused of murder and her sister would disappear, forsaking her._

_She had no idea that in two months' time, she'd hate the family and life she'd previously loved so much._

_And she had no idea that in half a year, she'd be called the Dragonborn, Nord hero of legend._

xXxX

Arinei rolled over, groaning in pain. Her vision was hazy, but she could just make out the Draugr standing over her, raising its sword to impale her.

"_Why is he… so strong…?"_ She struggled to think. _"Come on, Arinei… Stand… stand up…"_

She rolled out of the way as the sword came down, hearing it clang off the stone floor where she had just been. She barely managed to push herself to her feet and raise her shield to deflect the next blow. It sent a shockwave up her arm, and with her free arm, she shoved her sword through the Draugr's face without hesitation.

As the limp corpse fell to the floor, Arinei barely managed to keep her knees from buckling. She had to lean against the strange stone wall for support. As her back was turned to it, she didn't notice that one of the groups of characters on the wall was glowing a strange blue that disappeared when she touched it.

As if her free will no longer belonged to her, a word erupted from her lips, making the ground where she stood vibrate slightly and moving the Draugr's corpse faintly.

"_Fus!_" She shouted. As soon as the word left her lips, she slid down the wall, sinking into unconsciousness.

XxxX

"_Ow…"_ Arinei's head was pounding badly, and her body felt like it was on fire. She opened her eyes, squinting against the bright light that flooded them. Her migraine intensified.

She tried to sit up, and failed, falling back against the soft ground of wherever she was. She assumed from the tickling sensation on her cheeks that she was on grass.

She could hear the faint crackle of fire nearby, and an all-too familiar voice spoke to her.

"Don't move. You've got a fever and those wounds are serious. If you continue to move, I cannot assure your survival."

Arinei's eyes narrowed, but she complied. "I only need to survive long enough to kill you, Medea."

"That's quite an attitude to be talking to the person who saved your life with." Her sister's voice responded smoothly. Arinei noted a small hint of sadness in the background.

"Hmph. You betrayed me. You could save me a thousand times over, and I still would not forgive you." Arinei spat.

"Then I will just have to save you a thousand and one, won't I? Listen, Ari."

Medea's face appeared above her. Arinei saw that her sister was fighting back tears.

"I know- I know what you think happened." Medea choked. "I didn't betray you, I swear."

Arinei closed her eyes, a symbol that she was trying to ignore her sister.

"Please, Ari… _Please,_ listen to me. Just this once." Medea begged desperately.

Arinei opened her eyes, still narrowed. "Go on then. I'll listen to your excuses. Once."

Medea took a deep breath. "Here's what happened…"

XXXX

END OF SCROLL ONE


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